Getúlio Vargas

Biography

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was born in São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1882, into an influential local family. After a brief spell in the army he studied law in Porto Alegre, graduating in 1907, and began his career as a public prosecutor for the state's Republican Party. He sat in the state legislature from 1909, led a provisional division on the government side in the state's 1923 civil war, and entered the federal Chamber of Deputies the same year.

President Washington Luís made him finance minister in 1926, and in 1928 he became president of Rio Grande do Sul. Defeated as the Liberal Alliance candidate in the 1930 presidential election, he took power through the armed Revolution of 1930 and governed provisionally, putting down the São Paulo revolt of 1932 before being elected president under the 1934 constitution. After crushing the communist rising of 1935, he staged a self-coup in November 1937 that created the authoritarian Estado Novo, banned political parties and ruled by decree.

His regime centralised the state, built a national labour code and minimum wage, and promoted industry, and in 1942 he took Brazil into the Second World War on the Allied side. The army forced him out in October 1945. He was then elected to the Senate for Rio Grande do Sul and, as candidate of the Brazilian Labour Party, won the presidency again in the 1950 election.

His second term was overtaken by crisis when an air force officer was killed in a failed attempt on the life of his leading critic Carlos Lacerda, implicating the head of Vargas's personal guard. With generals demanding his resignation, Vargas shot himself in the Catete Palace on 24 August 1954, leaving a famous farewell letter.